In the eighties, during my search for a specimen of Queen Victoria's silver token said to be presented to Naga Chiefs as a token of friendship, I was aware that it was similar to the East India Company silver rupee, but had a central hole and an effigy of the queen. On reaching Tuensang (Nagaland), I asked around people in Tuensang Basti for such tokens with intrinsic value, upon which a resident of the village presented a bunch of arrow shaped iron pieces that I immediately rejected as junk. A few years later, I came across similar pieces, only slightly longer, in the coin gallery of the Assam State Museum at Guwahati. These were captioned "Jabilee Coin", hence facilitating my second encounter with this wonderful medium of exchange used by the Nagas in the nineteenth century.
I could thereafter trace a few more specimens in the museums in Nagaland and with the late Sashimeren Aier, the first master degree holder among the Nagas, who was popularly acknowledged as the architect of modern Nagaland. Though the information I could then gather was scanty, I have been able to find out more information over the years and thought that it would be useful to present this as a monograph.
In its preparation, I have received valuable help from many learned institutions and collectors, including the State Museum, Kohima, Assam State Museum, Guwahati, the Pit Rivers Museum, Oxford, the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, Ms. Sulangnaro Aier, daughter of the late Sashimeren Aier, Shillong, Mr. Ravi Shankar Sharma, Kolkata and Mr. Gautam Kr. Sarmah of the Assam State Museum. I received a lot of encouragement from Prof. J. B. Bhattacharjee, ex-Vice Chancellor of Assam University, who has kindly consented to write the foreword. In addition, Dr. R. D. Choudhury (the then Director of the Assam State Museums, Guwahati) had also provided useful information and rendered his support.
M/S. S. G. P. Works has helped in printing this monograph to an excellent standard. Finally, my thanks go to my wife Mira and our children Samrat and Priyanka for their support.
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